The 80/20 Rule Saved My Sanity (and My Schedule)
A Behavior Analyst’s Take on Getting More Done
Sometimes the stuff that’s supposed to keep us organized ends up doing the exact opposite.
That was me and my to-do list.
I’d pack it with 20 to 30 tasks a day, thinking I was crushing it. I wasn’t. At the end of most days, half of that list was still sitting there, mocking me. Multiply that across weeks and months, and it starts to feel like failure on repeat. I felt ineffective. Like I was always leaving things unfinished. Like I was running full speed and getting nowhere.
And for someone who wanted to do everything perfectly—that was a tough pill.
My list turned into a daily reminder of everything I didn’t do. A scoreboard, and I kept losing. It wasn’t a to-do list anymore. It was a to-don’t list.
Here’s the thing: we’re behavior analysts. We spend our days breaking down behavior into teachable, observable skills. And yet, somehow, we forget to apply the same principles to ourselves. The anxiety I felt? It wasn’t about the work. It was about the skill I didn’t have yet—how to manage the work.
That changed when I stumbled across something called the 80/20 rule.
Also known as the Pareto Principle, it’s this idea that 80% of your outcomes come from just 20% of your input. At first, it sounded like a fun productivity quote you’d find on someone’s coffee mug.
Then I started seeing it everywhere:
20% of roads carry 80% of traffic.
You wear 20% of your clothing 80% of the time.
20% of your people give you 80% of your joy—or headaches.
20% of your to-do list is responsible for 80% of your actual progress.
That last one hit hard.
Not all tasks are equal. Most don’t matter as much as we think they do. The 80/20 rule made that painfully clear. And once I started applying it, everything shifted.
Here’s what helped:
I built a task bank.
I listed out every task that came to mind—everything I thought I needed to get done. Then I stopped building my daily list from scratch. I just pulled the most important stuff—the top 20%—from the bank. The other 80% didn’t make the cut.
I kept to-do lists for each learner.
Trying to run one master list made everything feel urgent, all the time. Individual lists helped me focus on who I was working with that day and what mattered most for them. I prioritized the top 20% on these lists as well.
I ran the “vacation test.”
To help me determine what needed to be in the top 20%, I performed the “vacation test”. If I were leaving for two weeks tomorrow and couldn’t work on anything, what would absolutely have to get done today? It’s amazing how that one question can cut through the clutter.
I checked in with my supervisor.
Sometimes, what I thought was important wasn’t what actually mattered. A quick gut-check with the person who signs off on your work can realign priorities fast.
None of this was perfect. But it didn’t have to be. It just had to be better. And once it got better, so did everything else—my clarity, my time, and the sense that I was actually doing good work again.
We talk a lot about burnout in this field. But we don’t always talk about the little skills that prevent it. Organizing your tasks is one of those skills. And if you’ve been feeling that quiet dread every time you open your planner or notes app, you’re not alone.
Give the 80/20 rule a shot. Build your list around what actually matters.
Martin Myers is a BCBA with a passion for helping improve the field of ABA. He is the creator of BxMastery, with over 4,000 goal ideas, sequenced, to inspire your programming. With 10+ years of experience in the field, he’s dedicated to empowering others and fostering positive change through effective leadership and communication. Connect with Martin on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for more insights and updates.